"Google's quest to guess what we want before we want it has produced an unusual side effect: a disparity in the results the company presents about the presidential candidates. A Wall Street Journal examination found that the search engine often customizes the results of people who have recently searched for 'Obama' - but not those who have recently searched for 'Romney'." A confirmation bias' wet dream, this. The confirmation bias is already one of the root psychological causes of much of the problems in the world as it is - we really shouldn't have technology companies make it worse. Technology - and more specifically, the internet - should fight this bias, not affirm it.

It's noted that the US does have a lot more freedoms than countries in Europe. Yet it is European democracies that have a greater choice of parties.

I believe this is generally attributed to the electoral process. The US mostly uses a first-past-the-post system, which inevitably leads to two large parties since if there were lots of parties, you'd end up without a majority.

Many other countries use proportional representation. In this case smaller parties have more influence (since the threshold for inclusion is much lower than 50%), resulting in more electoral choice (and more coalitions).

I'm not really familiar with the US voting system though, so please correct me if I'm wrong. In the UK it's also first-past-the-post, and basically a two party system.

Sorry if you were already well aware of this. I just think it's interesting how the system has such a big influence (even before Google gets to it).

I consider myself independent, but when I lean it's generally Libertarian. I had hoped that the people in this country turning voting age this year would also be independent or at least form their own well-informed opinions. However in my (admittedly limited) experience it seems new adults just side blindly with their parents or, even worse, with their peer groups. It seems individuality and free thinking are still phantom concepts, at least around here.

Then again, I live deep in the heart of Dixie so I really shouldn't be surprised.